You Might Call it a Love Story
by Scintillula
Summary: Two young Pokémon hunt and play in the desert that is their home. But someone comes to change what would have been a simple tale of friendship and love.


Initiate

The baby Trapinch blinks open its eyes, their dull, unfocused gaze flickers across the small, underground cavern. There is not much to see and no light to see it with. Not only that, but the young Pokémon's eyes can barely make out vague shapes and will not be able to correctly identify them for some time. It shakes it massive head, closes its eyes, and drifts back off into a peaceful, undisturbed sleep.

Once again the young Trapinch awakes, but this time it does not lazily coast back into dreams, hunger grips at it and, for the first time, it has a motive for leaving its nest. It instinctively begins to dig, and after only a few minutes, finds itself squinting in the wake of the full force of the noonday sun. It carves out a larger opening in the sandy rock, sloping the tunnel downward into the deeper pit at the bottom. The Trapinch crawls back into the cool shade of the pit, and awaits the arrival of its first real meal. An unfortunate Ekans, who could not slither out of the trap, fought valiantly, biting and wrapping itself around its opponent, but it was no match. The Trapinch's immense jaws crush its skull in one swift, fatal bite.

Even in the desert, there is a rainy season, and the young Trapinch was not prepared for it. The storm came in a sudden rush, darkening the sky and causing the temperature to plummet. The rain came in great big drops that did not sink into the arid soil, but pooled on the surface and flooded into the Trapinch's nest. She cried out in fear at the sudden intrusion and the flashing lights and deep booms of earth-shaking noise. It seemed that the world must be ending. She clawed her way out, squeezing through just as the waterlogged sand collapsed into her elegantly made trap, destroying her home. Shivering from the cold and wet, she stumbled over to pile of limestone rocks and promptly feel asleep. For the next few days she stayed there, determined to wait out the storm and rebuild her nest. However, the water was too strong, and swept her away, down a river that had re-formed rapidly do to the sudden onslaught of available surface water. Chocking and gasping, barely able to keep her stocky head above the rushing river, she nearly drowned. If it wasn't for a gnarled old cactus bent over the edge of the rocky stretch of land by the implacable force of the river, which she managed to grab onto with her sturdy jaws, she would have surly perished. She hung onto the cactus, and managed, with the last of her strength, to pull herself out of the water. She was far from her home; the river had taken her nearly a mile downstream. Luckily, the rain was calming down, and no doubt the storm would be over soon.

The next day she began work on her new nest. Keeping a healthy distance from the river, she dug a new sloping pit, and successfully caught a Pokémon a few days later. While she was biting the prey's soft, tender neck in order to finish the kill, she suddenly felt different. Her form stretched, morphed, as her whole body glowed with an amazing light. She was suddenly lighter, freer, and far more agile. Opening her new emerald-green eyes, she spoke with awe and enchantment in her new voice, as her new name tumbled over her glimmering fangs.

"Vibrava."

Vibrava flew among the scrubby landscape, relishing in the freedom her wings gave her. Angling downward, she skimmed over the water, watching her flickering reflection in the cool ripples. She brought herself back up, searching the ground below for available prey. She flew past the river, the stubbly cactus, and the outcrop of rocks. She flew farther in one direction then she had ever done before, and was about to turn back, when a sudden movement caught her eye.

An Electrike was shuffling around halfheartedly, defeated by the heat of the summer day. The sun beat down on the oblivious electric type, who kept his watery eyes cast down and away from the sun. The blazing light caused it to pant and after a few more moments it resigned to sit on the scruffy desert grass. A shadow passed over its face, and it looked up, expecting to see a cloud passing over the sun, instead it came face to face with a Vibrava. It smirked at the sight of the terrified Electrike, and gleefully showed its fangs, while its hungry and clever gaze focused solely on its prey. The Electrike yelped in surprise and fear and let out a powerful electric spark, trying to shoot down the flying predator. It was a direct hit, but the Vibrava merely shook it off. The ineffectiveness of the attack had only delighted the Vibrava even more. He grinned at the proposition of a swift and easy battle, and dive-bombed the Electrike, showering it with a wave of self-generated ultrasonic waves.

Vibrava had swooped up, toward the clouds, and was in the process of coming back down to finish her loop-de-loop, when she noticed a cloud of dust, a little farther to the land of the setting sun. As she raced toward to commotion, another Vibrava flew out of the dust cloud. She gasped in surprise just as the other Vibrava disappeared back into the whirl of the sandstorm. A few seconds later the dust had cleared, and the two Pokémon were at a standoff. The other Vibrava was fighting an Electrike, which was panting heavily and coated in filth, however it let out a low, fierce growl once it noticed Vibrava approaching. As she got closer, a wave of fury enveloped her; adrenaline pulsed in her veins as territorial instincts kicked in.

"Hey!" she shouted aggressively. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

The Vibrava turned, and spat back at her. "I'm hunting, get off my turf."

"What are you talking about? This is part of my hunting grounds."

"Really?" he said sarcastically. "Then how long has this been part of your territory?"

"Ever since the storm that flooded the river."

"Which one is yours, the one to the setting sun, or the rising sun?"

"The rising sun, and there's another river?"

"Yes there's another river," he said, rolling his bright, mandarin-orange eyes. "And it's much better, its way bigger and it never dries out. Why do you think the land is so much greener here?"

She could tell he was mocking her ignorance and hissed, narrowing her eyes. "You better get off my land, or I will fight you for it."

He contemplated this idea, but she was just and big as he was, and he couldn't be sure that he would win this battle. "Alright," he said slowly. "Why don't you take the land that comes after your river, and I'll take the land that comes past my river." He had realized, of course, that the land by his river was much more fertile and resulted in fatter and more numerous prey.

"Okay," she said, equally as slowly, "but which one of us will take the land between the two? I don't want to share," she quickly added. She was mistrustful, and knew that this other Vibrava would merely steal every good kill from her.

"We can divide it in two, one part for you and one for me. What's the halfway point?" asked the other Vibrava.

"We don't need the exact middle," she said. "We need a good marker."

Scouring the land with her emerald-green eyes, she quickly spotted a lone tree. It was a tall oak, with extending branches that tapered into stilted fingers. It was hollow and dead, but easily the tallest thing in miles, apart from the massive canyon walls on either side of the desert.

"How about that old oak tree?" she asked, turning her mesmerizing gaze back to Vibrava.

He studied it carefully before answering. It was a little farther from her river than his, but far enough away so that she wouldn't capture prey spilling over from his far more abundant stretch of land, and become suspicious or jealous. He still didn't want to risk a fight with her.

"Alright," he mumbled. "But don't think I won't fight you if I catch you in my territory."

"And I'll definitely fight you if I catch you anywhere near my land," Vibrava said aggressively and excitedly, much more stirred by the prospect of a fight then the other Vibrava. Her eyes shifted out of focus as she imagined beating her foe with her powerful bite.

"Oh yeah," she asked, turning her gaze back to the other Vibrava. "Why are you a different color?"

"What are you talking about? You're the one who sticks out, who wants to be green when they live in a desert? You're the one that looks weird, I have much better camouflage," he said defensively, swinging from side to side and talking swiftly.

"Hey you're the only other Vibrava I've seen, so we can't prove whose right unless we meet another of our kind," she said, slightly worried that he was right. Her color_ did_ make her a much easier target while in a dry, greenless place like this.

"Yeah, sure," he said. "But I still think it makes more sense if…"and, turning around, exclaimed "hey, where the hell did my Electrike go?"


End file.
